Wedding Flowers – What Happens After the Party?
In a previous post, we discussed a little bit about what happens to all those lovely flowers you paid to have at your wedding ceremony and reception. We want to expand on this just a bit to give you some ideas on what to do with those flowers at the end of your event.
Typically, when you order your decor through a professional florist, they are quoting all vases, containers and other equipment as rentals. This means that while you own the floral at the end of the night, the vases, urns and other other items (like candelabras), go home with the florist. This means you and your guests must hand carry any flowers they would like to keep, as there are no containers available for transport. If you would like to keep the vases, or perhaps hand out centerpieces to your guests to take home, you’ll need to ask your florist about including this cost in your proposal, or at least contact them before the night of the event to make payment arrangements for this. We’ve had some clients decide on keeping only some of these vases, turning in a final number to the florist a couple weeks out from the florist so they can pay the fees for these vases with their final payment.
What else can you do? Well, here are a couple ideas we received from florists:
- Donate the floral to a nursing home or hospital – Amanda from Nest Floral Studio typically delivers floral left over from her weddings to local nursing homes either in the form of one large arrangement for their entryway, or loose stems that they can use for little vases they have at dining tables or residents rooms. She’s also “flowered the block” by turning leftover floral into arrangements for the businesses around her studio.
- Gift the floral to your guests – When you don’t want to just hand out centerpieces, but maybe offer something a little more personal, ask your florist if they can bring a roll of kraft paper at the end of the night and use what floral is left to create bundles for guests to carry home. You can get creative with this by creating custom stickers used to seal it off as the florist is wrapping the stems up.
Of course there are lots of ideas for preserving just your wedding bouquet. Here are a couple options and companies we recommend who offer these services:
- Freeze dry your bouquet and create a beautiful memento – Heller and Reid offers many, many options on how to display your bouquet, from a shadow box to lantern centerpieces, you can have your bouquet preserved for many years to come.
- Create personal note cards from your bouquet – Floral Notes takes your bouquet and uses it in the creation of paper note cards that you can then use as thank you notes to your guests.
Remember that if you are planning on having your bouquet preserved, you’ll need to make sure it gets plenty of water on the wedding day and you’ll need to make arrangements for shipping/transportation the day after your wedding so the bouquet is as fresh as can be when it reaches these companies.
photos by Sherry Peters Photography
Common Practices: Wedding Night Clean Up
We’re starting a new collection of posts here called “Common Practices”. Many of the wedding industry tendencies are not common knowledge, nor are they necessarily intuitive. To help all engaged couples planning a wedding, we want to give you some more information about how things are typically done, who does them and what to think about when planning your special day. To get started, we’re actually going to start at the end, the end of your big day that is.
At the end of your wedding day, when you have left to cheers from your guests and your guests have gone home, the wedding night clean up begins. Some vendors refer to this as break down, some refer to it as striking the event. Either way, it’s important to know what happens because you have items left behind that need to be taken care of. What happens and who does it can depend entirely on your venue. They set the rules on what can be stored and what needs to leave at the end of the night. Here’s a list of all the items that need to be taken care of and what typically happens.
- Wedding Gifts – Typically your venue or wedding planner will move your gifts during the event to a secure location, whether it is the venue coordinator’s office or perhaps another event space, it will be away from any wandering eyes. At the end of the event, these items will be loaded onto a cart or taken directly to the vehicle of who you designate as being responsible for these items. Usually this is a parent of the newlyweds. Make sure you tell whoever you designate ahead of time so they know to stay til the end of the night. The venue coordinator or your planner should know who this is so they make sure it all goes home with the right person, not just someone who volunteered.
photo by F8 Studio
- Personal items – This includes your toasting flutes, your cake knife and server, guest book and any decor you brought to the event. If you have any DIY projects you brought, such as a candy buffet you or your planner set up, these need to be removed. Sometimes a venue will store these items for you to be picked up the following week, but this is not normally the case. Usually they are sent home with the same person designated to take home the gifts.
- Food & Drink – If your wedding is at a full service venue (meaning a venue that also supplies catering and staff), they will most likely pack a box of food for the newlyweds to take with them. All other food is thrown out due to sitting out for so long (especially on a buffet). It is an insurance requirement at most venues that they are not allowed to send “left overs” home with anyone. If someone were to take the food home and not properly store it, resulting in food poisoning, the venue does not want to be responsible. If you are working with a caterer, they may have their own policies. Make sure you ask about this when hiring them. If you brought in your own alcohol, you will need to take home what is left over. This can be quite a bit, so make sure that whoever you designate to stay and take this home at the end of the night has a large vehicle, just in case. Typically, your caterer and/or planner will not transport left over alcohol.
- Cake – Your venue or caterer will box up your left over cake to take home, but most of the time they do not provide the boxes for this. Make sure you bakery will leave boxes, and if not, bring some of your own. Also, check with you bakery to see if any equipment, such as a stand, needs to be returned. Some planners will return cake stands for you, but again, check with them and see who needs to be responsible for this.
photo by Bella Pop Photography
- Floral decor / centerpieces – Most florists are charging you just a rental on their vases and other decor (such as candles, etc.). This means that at the end of the night, all the containers your beautiful floral are in must be returned to the florist. Typically, the florist will make arrangements with the venue to pick up these items the next day, but more and more venues are requiring the florist to pick up items that night. You must find out what your venue requires and communicate this to the florist as they will not call and check this for you all the time. You also might see an extra fee from the florist because of this, so double-check with them! As for the floral itself, you paid for this and can take whatever you would like home, but without the container. Some clients choose to pay for the containers for part of the centerpieces so they can take them home as they are. Some make arrangements to return the vases to the florist themselves at a later time, and others will just leave the floral behind. (Always ask your florist when receiving proposals if the containers/vases are included as a rental or purchase.) If the florist included the containers in your contract, you can give centerpieces away to your guests. Just remember, if a guests is from out of town, they probably cannot transport the item home, especially if they are traveling by air.
- Linens, Rentals and other Decor – Most rental companies prefer to pick up their rental items the Monday following your event. If they are required to pick up that night, you will more than likely be charged an additional fee, so check with your venue! The staff at your venue, if full service, will pack away all the rentals and linens for the rental company to pick up. However, if you are not at a full service venue, your caterer may help with only the items they handled, such as glassware, dishes, and flatware. With any rental items, designate someone responsible for checking the items for damage and counting. You will be charged for damaged items or missing items, so you always want to make sure someone is checking to make sure it is all there and not misplaced.
- Trash – Most venues handle all waste disposal. However, while unusual, some venues do not have dumpsters and require all waste to be removed at the end of the night by either the caterer or yourself. Venues will be up front about this need, so make sure you address it with them and your caterer. Caterers sometimes charge an extra fee for this. There are waste disposal companies that can be hired to bring containers to your event and take care of them throughout the night. Some even recycle all the waste, so it’s a great way to be green! They are usually inexpensive, so compare them to what your caterer charges.
- Other break down - All other vendors will need to break down their equipment and take it with them that evening. For example, a DJ or band will not leave their equipment over night. However, if you rented a stage or lighting, this will be broken down based on the rental companies needs. Any other entertainment, such as a photo booth or cigar roller, will also break down that evening and remove everything from the venue.
Your wedding planner should stay until the end of your event and follow up with all the vendors to make sure this break down happens according to your plan. They typically help with making sure all of your items (as listed above) are sent home with the right person, the rentals are all accounted for and packed away for pick up, the florist picks up all their containers (and none were taken home by a guest who didn’t know any better), and to check if there are and damages you will be responsible for. This all factors into that “peace of mind” when hiring a planner to help with your wedding day, whether full service or as a day of wedding planner. We hope this helps you to understand what to plan for at the end of your wedding night!
Peaches on Par Floral & Details
Floral was key to our theme in that we wanted it to almost be understated. We wanted it to be soft, low centerpieces, trailing down the middle of our long table. Peaches were of course important, so we displayed those on the table, which meant the floral had to color coordinate with them. We turned to Amanda from Nest, Floral Studio, to help us put together these pieces, plus a bouquet for a bride to carry that would match this theme.
From our original storyboard, you can see we were focusing on soft colors in peaches, pinks, ivory and white. We also suggested she use ranunculus and garden roses. She brought those in, but added even better choices! The bride’s bouquet she came up with was stunning with poppies in a peachy pink, peach parrot tulips, orange ranunculus, peach juliette garden roses and creamy white astilbe. When we asked Amanda for an estimate, she said a lush gathering of these type flowers in a bridal bouquet would cost about $175. Extremely reasonable for these types of flowers!
For the centerpiece on our long table, Amanda provided faceted antique glassware to use for the vases. We loved the glassware because it added a great texture, but was not distracting since it was clear. She had the 3 medium to large pieces set down the middle of the table, then smaller pieces interwoven throughout the table. The floral she used included the garden roses, astilbe, ranunculus, and poppies. She added a touch of hypericum berries to the centerpieces as well. For all the items on the table, the entire installation would cost approximately $275. This does not include the orange ranunculus bloom with the simple tuff of white astilbe tucked in the napkins, which would cost $6 per place setting.
To achieve a similar look, but with less expensive flowers, Amanda suggests using standard peach roses, stock, field tulips and other seasonal flowers. The other item Amanda contributed to was the escort card display (see previous post), as she brought the wheat grass we used. For the amount of grass we used, this would cost $45.
While floral is of course important, there were some other details key to this shoot. First, the chairs and benches we used were provided by vintage furniture rental company, Borrowed. Melinda was super sweet and even painted the benches just the right color for us! We made the cushions from foam core and material we found at Hobby Lobby. So simple and easy to make!
The dishes were provided by Jackson’s Home & Garden. The Juliska Stoneware Ceramics line was like it had been made for our golf theme! We loved the dotted circles that looked like golf balls on the white plate, and the glassware had the perfect motif! With the entire place setting costing a little over $250, purchasing these plates would not be what we recommend, but they were fun for the shoot. The peachy pink small plate was provided by one of her interns. It was her grandmother’s and is depression glass. Not something we can put a price on!
For the pies, Edison’s (a fabulous venue and offsite caterer) made these delicious desserts. They were SO scrumptious looking (and smelled heavenly), the golfers all around us were dying to steal them! Fortunately, Christina at TPC Craig Ranch helped us choose the perfect spot for our table so we were out of their line of fire and their reach, so none went missing.
Last, but certainly not least, the ivory garden cutwork linen from BBJ linen just made our day. It was perfect for the theme and just looked lovely outside! We know you’ll love it too. This linen would be $40.50 per table.
We hope you enjoyed our photos as much as we did in creating them! Thanks again to Celina Gomez for photographing everything, and Brides of North Texas for giving us this opportunity!
Peaches On Par Tablescape in Brides of North Texas
For each magazine issue, Brides of North Texas asks designers to submit a tablescape idea with a storyboard. From there, they convene a panel of brides to vote on these ideas to see which ones will actually come together to be photographed. We submitted our Peaches on Par idea and storyboard earlier this year and were thrilled when they called to say we were selected! Here is the original storyboard we submitted: Each & Every Detail Peaches on Par Storyboard. After working with Brides of North Texas on our team of vendors, we got together with some great professionals to put it all together and get it photographed. The issue just came out and here is the result of all our hard work! (Click on it to see the detail)
Over the next week, we’ll be discussing each of the details from this tablescape, so keep an eye out. Below are the vendors that made up our awesome team. Thanks to everyone for their help!
- Celina Gomez Photography
- TPC Craig Ranch
- Southern Fried Paper
- Nest, Floral Studio
- Edison’s
- BBJ Linen
- Jackson’s Home and Garden
- Borrowed
Lighting Expenses for Your Wedding Reception
Now that you are fluent in lighting language we can talk about pricing. {Disclaimer: these are the average lighting costs that we’ve seen from Dallas vendors. Cost does change frequently and varies upon location.}
Gobo: $300.00
Break up pattern: $375.00
Pin spots: $40.00 per pin spot
Up lights: $40.00 per up light
Color Wash: between $275-$350 depending on the size of the area
Most lighting companies require a minimum dollar amount to be spent on lighting to create your “package”. Also, set up and delivery charges vary, but are usually 10-15% of the lighting bill. (So if you are spending $1000 on lighting choices, then you will see an additional $100-150 added for set up and delivery. Always talk to your lighting professional to see what options they offer and you can creatively use lighitng to add that dramatic element without a dramatic bill, if you have less of a buget to work with. Maybe use pinspotting only for your sweetheart and cake tables, while using uplighting to add color. Or just a gobo without a color wash or break up pattern behind iton the dance floor? Maybe just add up lights to architectural details of your reception venue. There are so many options you can choose from when it comes to lighting.
When choosing your lighting vendor, you want to look for a lighting professional, not someone who has lots of twinkling Christmas lights that can hang them nicely. You want a vendor with nice equipment. It doesn’t need to be the newest top of the line equipment; it just needs to look professional and work well. This can mean the lovely LED lighting that allows you to change colors at your whim, or the less modern “can” lighting that uses gels to tint the color. Also don’t forget to look for a love match; you need to be comfortable trusting them and paying them.
If lighting is something you decide you want, make it work for you and your budget!
Happy Planning!
Defining Lighting Options for Weddings
Think lighting your reception means flipping a light switch? Think again. Lighting can be a fabulous way to kick your wedding up a notch, to make it a simply stunning event.
When talking to different lighting companies or lighting designers it can seem like they are speaking a different language. But don’t worry we’ve got you covered, just gather round for today’s Vocab Lesson!
Pin spots: a focused beam of light shining directly onto an object, like a centerpiece or the cake, used as a highlighting effect
Gobo: a projection of a wedding motif, like the wedding date, a monogram or a symbol
Up lights: projects light up to give the wall a dramatic effect or to highlight an area
Color Wash: basically a technique that “washes” an entire area a different color
Break up pattern: a projection of a pattern or an all over design, can be projected under the Gobo or over a color washed wall or over a blank wall, etc
Well now that you’ve learned the language of lighting, let’s chat about what lighting can do for your wedding.
Lighting is a great way change the look or feeling in the room. If you are doing your ceremony and reception in the same room, try color washing the room in a warm, soft amber color and then have the lighting switch to a dramatic color like purple. It can completely change the ambiance and your guests won’t even realize it’s the same room. Color washing the walls can also help set the tone for your guests, for example having a softer color during dinner and pumping up the vibrancy when it’s time to party.
If you don’t want to color wash, think about using up lights between windows or over pillars. You can have a break up pattern by the dance floor and have your monogram or another symbolic symbol as your gobo over the break up pattern. You love your centerpieces, pin spot them so they are more of a focal point. In love with your cake, then pin spot it!
Using lighting is a great way to add a little more drama {the good kind of drama} to your event.
Now that we’ve talked about light terms and what you can do with them, next I’ll post about pricing and different options that you can choose from!
Wedding Flower: What is an Amaryllis?
I received a beautiful flower arrangement for the holidays. It was made up of only two stems, one stem of Amaryllis and another stem of red berries. The simplicity just makes it stunning, and it started me thinking how this bold flower could be used for weddings, but I don’t think many realize it’s flexibility.
The Amaryllis flower is actually available year round. It comes in pale yellow, orange, salmon, red, deep red, pink, magenta and many combinations of these colors, such as pink and white. The stem is leafless and tall, producing a cluster at the very top of these funnel shaped flowers, anywhere from 2 to 12 on one stem! While the Amaryllis is listed as an expensive flower by the Bride & Bloom magazine, I think it is worth it considering how many flowers you get. The stems usually run about $8-10 each.
These flowers would be great in almost any capacity, such as part of the bride’s bouquet, or using the stems in a tall wedding reception centerpiece. Due to the size, I would not recommend them for any personal flowers (such as a corsage) or even part of a bridesmaid bouquet as it would overpower any other flowers included.
Can you think of any flowers typically used for this holiday season that could be used for a wedding at another time of the year?
Wedding Flower: What is a Hydrangea?
When I first started wedding planning nothing could send me into a cold sweat like a floral appointment. Linens, cakes, venues- I could handle that, but I always felt like the last kid picked for the kickball team when talking to florists. Don’t get me wrong, I love flowers, I just wish I knew more than roses and Gerber daisies. Anyone with me?
{Anyone…anyone…Bueller….Bueller?}
Well after awhile I started to recognize more and more flowers. One common {and I might add beautiful} wedding flower is hydrangea.
Hydrangea are most often used as a filler flower in wedding bouquets and wedding centerpieces because although stem for stem theyare more expensive than roses, you get one huge bloom per one stem of hydrangea, which can be three times the size of a single rose. Of course, they do look stunning just by themselves.
They are also a flower that can fit into a lot of styles. They can perfectly achieve a romanctic look, a whimsical feel, or even used in a modern or contemporary design.
But hydrangea can be a tricky flower. They are “thirsty” flowers so when it’s hot outside they can wilt pretty fast if they aren’t given enough water before hand. If you have hydrangeas in your wedding bouquets, make sure to rest the stems in water when you can just to insure that they last and remain beautiful all night long.
My favorite part of hydrangeas is that they come in so many different colors; they range from white to dark purple. They can also be dyed or painted if you want them to be!
And best of all for you lucky Dallas Brides hydrangeas are a local wedding flower available all year long down here!
So during your next floral meeting, maybe ask about adding a hydrangea or two? You may love the results, and if not, then at least you know about another flower for future use right?
Linen Know How
No matter what the budget, I’m always asking my brides to look at linen samples. Tablecloths are one of the easiest and most effective ways to change the look of a room, carry a color theme and to even stretch those budget dollars. When you have a fabulous tablecloth, you can get away with less dramatic centerpieces and you can get colors that you simply can’t get in flowers! Plus, linen samples are the perfect way to choose that perfect shade of your favorite color and then use it to show all your vendors exactly what you are talking about.
One of my fave vendors for custom linen rentals is Jules Event Décor. I recently asked Jules to give me some tips and here’s what she said:
1. The wedding linens you choose for your wedding will set your theme, whether it is elegant, romantic, or contemporary. You want wedding linens that will make an impression the moment your guests enter and gaze across the room. (For an example, check out these before and after photos.)
2. A bride can certainly rent specialty linens to add to the design and layout of her wedding reception without exceeding her budget. Specialty linens made from fabrics such as pin tuck, crinkled taffeta, crushed shimmers may be used on the sweetheart table, bridal party table, cake table(s), or guest book table.
3. Linen made of a solid-color, lamour fabric may be used on all the guest tables as it is more reasonably priced. [Poly-cottons are the staple linens offered by rental companies and venues. Lamour fabric is a “step up” and has a wonderful sheen to it.] This is also a great choice for napkin and chair sash rentals.
4. If your “linen” rental budget is limited, you can still make an impression by using the table linens your venue provides, yet renting napkins or sashes in your color theme while complimenting your venue’s decor. The size, style, and quantity of your linen needs will determine your linen budget.
As Jules says, “your goal as a ‘savvy’ bride is to find the best wedding linen rental price without compromising the quality of the linen.” You can check out Jules Event Décor at www.juleseventdecor.com.
Spending for Bridal Bouquet Decreasing?
I know, it may have seemed like we dropped from the face of the earth. Let’s just say Each & Every Detail has been undergoing some fabulous changes and with all of our wonderful brides to attend to, we got caught up in the craziness of life and forgot to keep you posted! I hope you’ll forgive us! We have very exciting news on the horizon, so please keep checking back as we’ll have some announcements here shortly.
In the meantime, here’s a fun little statistic for you. According to The Wedding Report (a wonderful site for wedding statistics), spending for the bridal bouquet has decreased from $154 in 2008 to $136 for the second quarter of 2009.
This could mean many things. Do you think florists are lowering their prices because of the economy? Or are brides buying less expensive bouquets? Or are flowers in general less expensive right now? Please share your thoughts as I’d love to know what you think it means!
